Method of feeding yarn to braiding machines



A ril 15, 1924. 1,490,260

. O.A.FREDEMCKSON I METHOD OF FEEDING YARN TO .BRAIDING MACHINES Original Filed Oct. 12. 1922 o as a a o G I I 4 O Jig/.1; la

w l/ K. I J

Patented Apr. 15, 1924., I

UNETEE STATES earner orries.

OTTO A. FREDERICKSON, OF W'ETI-IERSFIELD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERI- CAN VVIREIWIOLID COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

METHOD OF FEEDING YARN TO BRAIDING MACHINES.

Application filed October 12, 1922, Serial No. 594,011. Renewed November 28, 1923.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, O'r'ro A. FREDERICK- son, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wethersfield, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Feeding Yarn to Braiding Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a method of feeding yarn or thread to rotary braiding machines, and more particularly to that type of braiding machine which has a plurality of annularly arranged bobbins, cops or tubes of yarn or thread that are rapidly revolved in one direction, and a plurality of bobbins, cops or tubes of yarn or thread that are arranged annularly within the outer cops and are revolved rapidly in the opposite direction, the strands of yarn from the outer cops being alternately raised and lowered as the cops are revolved so that they will pass above and below the strands of yarn from the inner cops which revolve in the opposite direction. The cops for such machines are formed of braided or twisted cotton, silk, linen or other fiber Wound with one or more ends up, and the yarn is braided upon a woven or braided or rubber core for forming tubular or hose fabric, or braided upon a permanent core, for instance electrical conducting wires, cable or rope, or braided into a fabric without any core.

In machines of this type designed to braid a considerable number of strands, the length and diameter of the inner cops is limited by the diameter of the machines and throw of the cams, that is, the length of the yarn wound upon the inner bobbins cannot be increased above that for which the machines are designed without increasing the diameter of the machines and throw of the cams, while the length and diameter of the outer cops, that is, the amount of yarn wound upon the outer bobbins may be increased greatly without increasing the size of the machines or the throw of the cams. The yarns for these machines are commonly wound upon paper'cores and are furnished by the yarn mills'in standard sizes which are too large for direot'use in many machines of this character that have a considerable number of inner yarn GaIIier-s,

cores to the yarn is greatly increased, and

as a result, the product being sold by weight, the yarn costs the braider still more as he pays yarn prices for a greater proportion of paper. Furthermore it is not possible to obtain small cops wound with more than one end up, that is, with a plurality of strands, without paying a greatly increased price.

lhe object of this invention is to pro vide a method by means of which the large standard size cops may be used directly in the braiding machines without increasing the size of the machine and without necessitating rewinding, thus economizing factory floor space, obviating the expense of rewinding machines and the wages of rewinding operatives, eliminating extra wear on the yarn and loss of time in rewinding to smaller sizes, and doing away with a large number of cores with the incident expense of the paper purchased at yarn prices,

this being particularly so in cases where it is necessary to have cops wound with more than one end up.

Thls ob ect is attained in a very simple manner by providing the machines with outer carriers which will hold standard full size cops and inner carriers which will take half size cop's. With this arrangement it is only necessary to rewind one set of inner cops of half size to be used when starting up a machine, forwhen the machines are in operation, and they are designed to braid a continuous length, and the yarns from the inner cops have run out theouter cops of full size are then reduced one half or so much in diameter that they may be simply transferred from the outside'carriers to the inside carriers and a fresh supply of cops of full size placed in the outer carriers.

"For the purpose of illustrating the manner of practicing the invention a portion of a sixteen thread braiding machine is shown, this machine having eight insideyarn carriers that are revolved in one direction and eight outside yarn carriers that are revolved in the opposite direction. The number of threads, however, is not essential to the invention, as the machines are built for a inner yarn carriers taken on the plane indicated by the dotted line 33 on Fig. 4. Fig. 4L shows a plan of the inner end of one of the inner yarn carriers. Fig. 5 shows a plan of one end of one of the outer yarn carriers. Fig. 6 shows an elevation of one of the brackets of the outer carriers, and indicates a standard size cop of yarn supported thereby.

In the type of machine illustrated the inner'bobbins, cops or tubes 6, which comprise braided or twisted cotton, linen or silk yarn wound upon paper cores 7, are placed in carriers 8 that are arranged radially in the machine and at their inner ends have rolls 9 which run upon a track on the upper face of a disk 10 the hub of which is fastened to a tubular support 11 secured to the main frame 12 so as to stand upright at the center of the machine. At their outer ends the carriers have rolls 13'which are engaged by pushing rolls 14 fixed to spindles 15 mounted in brackets18 fastened to the upper face of a plate 17 the hub of which is secured to the upper end of a tubular shaft 18 that surrounds the tubular support 11. Secured to the lower end of the shaft 18 is a gear 19. The driving pinion 2O meshes with this gear and rotates the parts in such manner that the pushing rolls 14 engage the carrier rolls 13 and cause the carriers to revolve about the axis of the machine. Anti-friction bearings 21 are an ranged between the gear 19 and a race ring 22 attachedto the frame for supporting these parts. The inner ends'of the pusher roll'spindles 15 are provided-with pinions 23 that mesh with teeth on the under face of the fixed disk 10. This causes the pushing rolls 14 to rotate .as they. are revolved and. push the inner'carriers around.

The outer bobbins, cops jor tubes 24 of braided-cor twisted cotton, linen or silk yarn woundwupon paper. cores 25,-are placed in brackets 26 that are mounted on wring-27 whichiis fastened to-the upper edge of the drum 28. The hub; 29 of thisdrum is free incense to turn on the tubular shaft 18 and the drum is supported by anti-friction bearings 30 arranged between its under face and the top of an annular web 31 on the top of the gear 19. On the under face of the drum is a gear that is engaged by the driving pinion 20 so that when the driving pinion is rotated and the inner carriers are revolved in one direction the outer carriers will be revolved in the opposite direction.

in the machine illustrated the yarns 33 from the inner carriers are led directly to the under side of the braiding sleeve 3 f, while the yarns 35 from the outer carriers are led down through thread guides 36 and thence through slots 37 in the wall of the drum and to the braiding sleeve 34L The thread guides 36 through which the outer yarns pass are at the ends of levers 38 which are pivoted to the outer wall of the drum and have rolls 39 that run in the cam groove 40 in a cam ring that is attached to the main frame. Thus the outer yarns pass below and above the inner carriers as the inner and outer carriers are revolved in opposite directions. This action is well known in this type of machine and it causes the yarns to braid in the common way at the axis of the machine- The particular mechanisms described for revolving the yarn carriers in opposite directions and causing the outer yarnsto move up and down and form the braid are not essential to the present invention which consists of the method of feeding yarn whereby rewinding of the inner cops for a multiple carrier machine is rendered unnecessary.

The invention claimed is 1. The method of feeding yarn. .to rotary braiding machines having inner and outer yarn carriers, which consists in supplying the outer carriers with substantially'twice the length of yarn supplied to the inner carriers, and as the yarn on the inner carriers runs out transferring the yarn remaining in the outer carriers to the inner carriers.

9. The method of feeding yarn to rotary braiding machines having inner and outer yarn carriers, which consists in supplying the outer carriers with'yarn cops of one size and supplying the inner carriers with yarn cops of less size, and as the inner yarn cops are run out transferring what remains of the outer yarn cops to the inner carriers.

3. The method of feeding yarn to a rotary braiding machine having inner and outer yarn carriers, which consists in supplying the outer carriers with one length of yarn and supplying the inner carriers with a less length of yarn. and as the inner yarns run out transferring-the yarns whichremain in the outer carriers to the inner carriers.

4. The method of feeding yarn to a rotary braiding machine having inner and outer yarn carriers, which consists in supplying the outer carriers with full size cops of yarn, supplying the inner carriers with onehelf size cops of yarn, and transferring the outer cops to the inner carriers as the inner 5 cops are used up.

5. The method of feeding yarn to a rotary braiding machine having inner and outer yam carriers, which consists in supplying one set of carriers With yarn cops of one size and supplying the other set of carriers With yarn cops of a greater size and as the smaller cops are exhausted, transferring the remainder of the larger cops to the empty carriers.

OTTO A. FREDERICKSON. 

